


Trial

by sharkbatez



Series: Thirty-Prompt: Forest Fire [6]
Category: Magic: The Gathering (Card Game)
Genre: F/F, F/M, Modern AU
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-08-28
Updated: 2019-10-12
Packaged: 2020-09-28 13:42:49
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 6
Words: 16,171
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20426921
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sharkbatez/pseuds/sharkbatez
Summary: Chandra Nalaar, an overworked, underpaid twenty-four-year-old woman, finds a strange man who offers her not one, not two, but THREE chances to win the game of love without even playing it. Of course, shecouldpick the man of her dreams, right off the bat, but that wouldn't be very fun, would it?Chandra knew it too.Hiatus again!





	1. Let Us Begin

**Author's Note:**

> Disclaimer: Characters and settings are property of Wizards of the Coast
> 
> Greetings! 
> 
> I am going to be upfront that I haven't read the latest Magic stories (except for War of the Spark). My heart still belongs to Battle for Zendikar, Shadows Over Innistrad and Kaladesh and I guess that's where it will remain. 
> 
> LOL It's led me to venturing into writing AUs. Basically, walking down the same street but backwards. I got stuck with the original 6th Prompt "Blackboard" so I decided to just break the rules, find a different concept and play with it. Inspired by my love for beautifully horrible (or horribly beautiful) movies from the 90s and bops from the 60s-80s. 
> 
> ForestFire/Gruulfriends/Nissandra endgame, yo.
> 
> Thank you to proteusFirma for reigniting the spark.

"So, three?" she cleared her throat, "And, basically, there are no consequences?"

Chandra Nalaar shifted in her seat. Her sweater was beginning to itch, deep maroon like the color of her hair. Like blood. Like blood. So much blood. She clenched her hands into fists on her knees, rubbing them against her slacks; friction burning her skin. She closed her eyes and breathed deeply and when she opened them, she frowned. The man was looking at her expectantly. The weight of his eyes was becoming a little too heavy, a little too focused. It was as if he knew what she was feeling, what she was thinking. It didn't help her nerves to see a glimmer of amusement in them.

"None whatsoever." he simply responded with a tilt of his head and the widening of his smile.

"And nobody would remember?" she clarified, guilt lodging in her throat, "None of them would remember? Just me?"

"Just you."

"So, I can do anything I want?" her eyes grew wide, like a child being offered free reign to run rampant in a candy store, "Anything?"

"Absolutely anything." he smiled even wider. Chandra couldn't help but wonder if he even got tired of that. Was it a work protocol? Were his bosses going to flog him for not smiling? Or was he just really this creepy. She wondered if, he would force to smile even wider than he already did, his head would roll off his shoulders.

_Absolutely anything._

That was too good a promise as any and Chandra Nalaar, twenty-four and an overworked and underpaid hopeless **_and desperate_** romantic had known her fair share of pretty strangers, their endless promises of happily ever after and the inevitable heartbreak that followed soon after. Quite frankly, she was getting tired of it all. Love was a fickle thing though; at best, it would fade and, at its worst, it distorted a person, disfiguring them to leave a broken stranger in its wake.

But there was no satiating the need that burned in her chest, the feeling of warmth and a heart so full it would always feel like bursting at the seams.

"How long do I have?" her voice wavered. She tried to calm her unruly red hair, cursing herself for not giving too much thought to her appearance today of all days. This had been a spur of the moment type of thing. She got out of work, passed by and decided to give it a try. She looked on ahead at the man before her, suspiciously, a little bit angrily. She hoped that he could understand that she was daring him to tell her a lie, to provoke her fury in any minute way.

Instead, he laughed an easy laugh, like a parent who would laugh off a child's innocent, dumb question, "At most, eleven days, but you can stop any time you want. After that, you return to me."

She scoffed, "Eleven days is a strange number. Why not go for a full two weeks or maybe just **one** week?"

"Seven days is too short a time to get the best possible results." he explained calmly, "Two weeks is a little too long. Based on my previous clients, the average time it takes to decide is ten to twelve days. Eleven days seems a poetic choice, don't you think?"

He smiled again. Chandra was beginning to feel sick at the sight of it. She averted her gaze, stared down at her crumpled slacks, at the deep crease on her heels, anything else but him.

"Yeah, sure." she tried to sound nonchalant.

But it must have come off as uninterested. The man tensed in his seat, straightening. His smile vanished in the blink of an eye and he leaned forward as if ready to pounce on her. "Do you need more time to think about this? The program is selling fast and I might run out of t—"

The legs of the chair screeched almost deafeningly. Chandra almost leapt out, nervous and uncertain about the possibilities of her choices. The secrets they contained.

"No, no." she lied, she breathed deeply, "I don't need more time. We can start right now."

He laughed again, but softly this time, acutely aware of the fear that gripped his guest's tongue, "You know, you can have five minutes, right? This is a tough decision after all."

She stared straight into his eyes. He would not intimidate her. She had faced countless mishaps and stared down hundreds of battles and hardships that came her way. She held her head high, watched him smile that same smile as she puffed out her chest. Defiant to the end, her grandmother had lovingly said about her. _Dear sweet Chandra. Poor girl. Poor girl._

"I'm ready." Chandra said confidently despite the nervousness in her bones.

"Alright." the man sounded pleased, ready to unleash his repertoire of smooth-talking and beguilement, "Who would y—"

But she would never give him the satisfaction, "Liliana Vess." 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Press play: [Sh-boom by The Chords](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SBgQezOF8kY)


	2. In All Her Glory

Chandra Nalaar awoke the next morning to the familiar sound of traffic and neighbors arguing from the street below. Good old Ravnica; the city that ought to sleep every now and then, with its winding streets, aggressively enthusiastic street vendors and the questionably fresh produce from the corner store. There were bells ringing, horns honking and the never-ending churn of machinery.

"We're all doomed!" a hoarse voice echoed from the street below.

There was also the crazy man wearing a plastic bag for shorts and a tinfoil hat, giving his daily sermon to the passersby. The end of the world is nigh, he would say. The world is imploding and all we could do was descend into more chaos and sin. There was a semblance of truth to his words and there was no doubt that there were hundreds, maybe thousands who believed in his cause. But the plastic bag left little to the imagination and his reputation.

"What happened?" she mumbled to herself, blinking up at the cracks along her bedroom ceiling.

She vaguely recalled the strange man from yesterday — Was that even real? His smile made her skin crawl, her fist itched to collide into his jaw just so she wouldn't have to see his crooked teeth. She was still groggy, still reeling from the... _dream?_ She bit her tongue, trying to convince her body to stay awake. It was Wednesday. She had to go to work. She had just been conned, dammit! Her entire life, she had been working hard, obeying the law, looking both ways before crossing the street and praying that one day her ship would come in, but some smooth-talking, creepy guy had wormed her way into her back pocket and promised her _so many things._

_It's alright._ She clamped her eyes shut and opened them again,_ You haven't even paid him anyway._

She felt the doubt creeping up her stomach and her subconscious was yelling for her to jump out of bed and call the bank and see if somebody had moved her entire life's savings. But, oh, doubt's touch felt warm and ticklish over her stomach. It almost felt as if they—

Chandra's hand flew to the sensation. Her mouth fell open and her body tensed at the warmth moving closer and closer, spreading across her shoulder. She yanked her blanket off of her, sweat dripping all over her naked form and she stared at the wild, lustrous black hair splayed across her shoulder and her pillow, a heavy arm following the guide of an insistent hand trailing towards her bare chest.

Liliana Vess's pale body was spread between half of Chandra and what remained of her single bed, comfortable and content as she snuggled closer and absentmindedly squeezed Chandra's breast with a soft hand, "Darling... I'm cold."

Chandra shrieked until her throat ached. She jumped out of bed, stumbling over the half conscious body beside her and falling onto the floor. She pulled the blanket towards her, quickly draping the thin fabric over her body as Liliana sleepily pushed herself up and frowned at her, long waves of black hair cascading over her shoulder and barely covering her breasts. Her breasts.

Her breasts.

She felt like a teenage creep.

"Chandra, darling, I love..." she stifled a yawn, "it when you scream, but only when I'm insi—"

"What are you doing in my room?" Chandra covered her eyes with her hands, still struggling to hide her nakedness beneath the blanket, "Why are you in my bed? Why are you _naked_?"

"The last part was your idea." Liliana almost sounded amused.

The door burst open to Chandra's right and Nissa Revane, dressed in her usual sleepwear of a faded blue tank top and black shorts, stumbled inside looking distraught; her long, brown hair was unkempt, "What's going on?"

Chandra chanced a peek at her bedroom, at the mess that wouldn't go away no matter how many times she prayed in the span of a minute. Liliana unabashedly stood from the bed, her arms wide open as if to dare the two women to take a good hard look at her. She looked completely and utterly irritated, hands flying to her hips as she stared down the uninvited brunette at the door. Chandra could feel her cheeks burning, the blanket a little too thin and felt somewhat transparent. It wasn't enough that she and Liliana lay naked when she woke up, now her nosy roommate would have a look too. With frantic apologies whispered, Nissa retreated from the room, gently closing the door behind her. Chandra could almost breathe now.

Almost.

"Jesus fucking Christ." Chandra muttered.

"I'm sorry!" Nissa shouted from the other side.

"Remind me again why that idiot is still living here?" Liliana scoffed.

Chandra paid no mind to the question. Her idiot of a roommate still lived here because, technically, this was her apartment. Despite all of the little things that Chandra _loathed_ about Nissa "fucking vegan" Revane, she couldn't easily forget the unbelievably cheap forty-percent-of-the-rent deal the brunette had offered her before moving in here. That was a fresh graduate's dream and this place was only fifteen minutes away from her place of work.

Liliana stood between the bed and a cowering Chandra, waiting _impatiently_ for at least a vague response. Chandra looked up at her with a pained smile on her face, her mind telling her over and over not to look lower than Liliana's lips. Even with her self-control, she felt so dirty, wanting to instruct the naked woman to put some clothes on.

"Why are you in my bed?" she asked instead.

Liliana quirked a perfectly manicured brow and folded her arms over her chest, not out of embarrassment. No, Chandra _knew_ Liliana, knew the moments that she would do that very small yet very intimidating move. Most people tended to run. Chandra remembered doing that once, some months ago. It didn't end well, if anybody was wondering.

"Darling, you were the one who asked me to be here." Liliana's scowl softened. Her voice was soft, almost as if she was hurt. Unfortunately for Chandra, she quickly bent over and effortlessly yanked the blanket from the poor girl's grasp.

"What?" Chandra was still reeling from the sensation of Liliana Vess calling her _darling_.

She sighed, "You don't remember last night, do you?"

Chandra shook her head. Liliana rolled her eyes and threw the blanket over her shoulders. She turned around and crawled back into bed, creaks and all. Chandra sat on the floor, her bare butt beginning to itch. She leaned to the side, reached over to lock the door in fear of Nissa barging back inside. Logically, her roommate probably wouldn't do that, but Chandra was still rooted to the floor and the blanket had been stolen from her grasp. She didn't want to take any chances.

"Honestly, darling, you're starting to hurt my feelings." Liliana said as she adjusted herself comfortably on the bed, casting a smug smile at the still-dumbfounded, still-naked Chandra, "If I had known you would be a bigger tease than me, I would have jumped you long ago."

Chandra stood up, her hands flying to her private parts as if there was anything left of her modesty to rescue, "Tease?"

Liliana groaned. Her hand shot out of the blanket, inviting Chandra to return to bed. "Chandra, I'm not in the mood for games. It's too early."

Chandra grabbed a discarded t-shirt from the floor and she quickly put it on. She stumbled around like a madwoman, finally staring at the brass filigreed clock on her bedside table. It was seven-fifty-eight in the morning and Chandra was going to be late for work if she wouldn't leave the apartment in thirty minutes.

"We're gonna be late." she told Liliana.

But the woman only laughed, voice laced with sleep and condescension, "Trust me, darling, the worst your boss could do is spank you." She turned over, one pale blue eye sparkling with all of the mischief that Chandra was sure flowed through her veins. "I thought you liked being spanked."

Chandra felt her cheeks burning, the heat spreading across her body, going lower and lower as Liliana motioned for her to join her in bed once more.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Press play: [I Just Want To Make Love To You by Etta James](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j4ErjX8p20s)


	3. Nobody Needs To Know (But They Do)

The cars were bustling about, people were going through the motions, slipping and sliding between each other as they made their way to who knows where. Chandra rushed past two lovers who took their sweet time walking in the middle of a busy sidewalk. Because _how dare they? _They muttered curses about her behavior and her unkempt hair. _Seriously, how dare they? _But she kept moving. She had almost spilled all of the coffee she'd been carrying, cradling the tray close to her in her journey back to Guildpact HQ.

She got to the thirty-fourth floor, her home away from home. She was met with the blaring sound of telephones ringing, voices rising and falling, varying between irritation, appeasing clients and customers and practically cowering from irate customers on the other line. The air smelled of strong coffee and sweat, mixing together with the god-awful lemon-scented air fresheners that filtered through the air-conditioning system. Everyone was clad in their business attires: crisp white shirts, boring-colored slacks or skirts or socks and the occasionally less-boring-colored shoes. Occasionally. Sure, there were a few men and women who _dared _wear bright colors like hot pink and rich purple. People who actually wanted people to **look **at them. Mayael from sales was known for wearing bright yellow blazers... _with shoulder pads! _

Oh, but not on the thirty-fourth floor. She marched through Boring Central, making her way towards the conference room where she should have been in ten minutes ago. Everything had faded into more whites and grays the closer she got, a blur of corporate colors and death. The two weren't that different for her eyes. Everyone and everything on the thirty-fourth floor probably had a vibrant life, either outside of the office or once upon a time. Except him. A grey shirt had never looked so good stretched to its breaking point except on him. Her breath caught in her throat and she could feel the heat from this morning's adventures rush back downwards with a vengeance. 

Gideon Jura, to say the least, was a god among men. That was not an exaggeration. Nobody could prove otherwise anyway. It was almost unfair how his long, silky brown hair was three times more shiny and neat than Chandra's mop of burnt autumn leaves. He wore his white and grey shirts like a second layer of skin, getting tighter and tighter every passing day, thin fabric almost pointlessly clinging to his sculpted arms and chest. He was talking with a co-worker, veiny arms folded across his broad chest, unconsciously flexing and making Chandra — _and probably several other women who ogled him — _swoon. 

Regret clawed deep into chest, caressing her skin as her mind repeated: "Why didn't you choose him?" 

Even in this _other reality, _she could hear the strange man's voice, could see his annoying smile spreading across his wrinkled face. He would lean forward, his steepled fingers right underneath his parted lips and ask, "Where would be the fun in that?" 

She shook her head and moved closer to Gideon instead. 

This wasn't the first time she had been late to a meeting or two. Her boss had always demanded a complicating order of coffee, specifically from a cafe six blocks from the building and **always **during peak hours, no less. She remembered how Gideon would always be waiting for her by the door, his calming silence and his magnetic presence ready to cut a path for her to the conference room. That was just simply who he was. Gideon Jura. Thirty-two, tragically — _or fortunately for Chandra — _single, olive skin, a smile that could launch a thousand ships and arms that could readily break each and every one of them. He was, quite possibly, the best man she would ever know her entire life. 

If anyone were to ask her, she felt that there already was something between them. A part of her could feel it in the softness of his gaze from their little office, could hear it in his offers to walk her home when the boss would make them work overtime. He had once volunteered to take down a set of documents for Chandra. That was a couple weeks back, because Chandra would have to talk to Dhiren about them. Chandra _hated _Dhiren and she had never once kept that fact a secret from the world. Gideon understood and he did that for her. And as he smiled at her, documents under one arm, hips swaying as he walked over to the elevators, Chandra knew then that she was in love. 

_A man like that only comes once in a lifetime. _Now, she was beginning to hear her Nani Oviya's voice in her head. 

Gideon finally looked in her direction. She was breathless with how his bright green eyes met hers. They had done this a hundred times before, but to this day, Chandra still felt the air knocked out of her. She should have died because of the frequency of it all because every morning, he looked. Every morning, he smiled. Maybe she _had _died the first time their eyes met. Maybe she was just a ghost, reliving the most mundane of her nightmares and only to be saved by the tenderness of his gaze. 

Which wasn't on his face at the moment. 

He was frowning at her, excusing himself from his audience and practically lumbering towards her, "Where have you been?" 

Chandra stopped in her tracks, could feel the coffee sloshing in their container from the momentum. She summoned all of her otherworldly eloquence, reminding herself of the expensive student debt she now had for it, but all she could come up with was: "Ummm..." 

Gideon didn't drop to his knees at the sound, to kiss the ground that she walked on. No, he simply shook his head and growled low. "The meeting started ten minutes ago." 

_This was... odd. _

Gideon sighed, the irritation fading from his grizzled face. He looked at Chandra with grim determination and a slight glint of disappoint. Chandra should have found that something to hope for, but she had no time to even consider it when he led her to the conference room. 

She stood at the doorway as Gideon continued past her, joining the people who stared at their sudden arrival. It felt like being trapped in a hot box. Or maybe like an ant underneath six magnifying glasses. At the head of the table, where he rightly belonged to be, stood Mr. Jace Beleren, the Chief Operations Officer who went down to the drab thirty-fourth floor a little too frequently in the last two weeks. Ms. Saheeli Rai from Sales and her two assistants were seated by the windows, staring at Chandra and her ostensibly expensive tray of coffee. 

Mr. Beleren looked to the direction of the marketing team, Chandra's team, "Is this everyone then?" 

"Yes." Gideon said brusquely, sitting himself down in one of the vacant office chairs. 

Liliana Vess sat across the table from Mr. Beleren, one leg over the other, leaning away from Gideon as if he was unclean, unworthy to even breathe the same air that she breathed. On any other woman, her low cut strapless black dress wouldn't pass the office dress code. It left little to the imagination. But Chandra didn't need to imagine anything. She had already seen it all. Begrudgingly, at first. Then, with a little bit of resignation, as Liliana pulled her back into bed. Finally, happily sprawled beneath the woman, ignoring the voice in the back of her mind that kept shouting: _you're going to be late. _

She blushed as she carefully handed each person their coffee, mentally patting herself on the back for the little victory of the act despite her trembling fingers. She sat herself down across from Gideon, a place that she had been accustomed to in the last three years. She tried to cover up a small smile when Liliana shifted the tiniest bit closer to her. But nobody was looking at the little ragamuffin known as Chandra Nalaar. No, all eyes were on Liliana Vess, head of marketing and Chandra's immediate boss. 

"Okay, then." Mr. Beleren smiled broadly at the group, "Saheeli, Liliana, thank you for assembling your core teams. I'd like to keep this brief so we can all return to our jobs." 

Liliana flashed him a smile, so sweet, so innocent, so harmless and very, _very _distracting. 

_Oh my god, those lips have been **on **places, **in **places. _

Chandra stiffened and then trembled, reaching for her own coffee cup. She frowned when Gideon grabbed it out of her reach. He leaned forward and shook his head, one eyebrow cocked in confusion. "You don't drink coffee." He whispered. 

Before she could even splutter out a comprehensible response, Gideon turned his attention back to Mr. Beleren, taking a generous sip of _Chandra's _coffee and further ignoring the dirty looks she gave him. 

She sat there indignantly. Throwing _dirtier _looks, angry ones that could make a grown man cry, at a man who barely even noticed. She diligently took notes instead, subtly stared at Liliana's cleavage through the curtain of her hair, shot Gideon another glare for good measure and nodded absentmindedly at Mr. Beleren's bright blue eyes and admired how the blue of his shirt only made them _pop. _

And she felt bad the entire time. 

Figuratively, she was with Liliana, who was sitting right next to her that very moment. But Chandra Nalaar was not a blind girl. Sure, she had earned quite a handful of nicknames in her entire life, but none of them had been _blind girl. _Mr. Jace Beleren was a handsome man, a close second to Gideon. It was no secret that he was rich too. He might as well be on the cover of a 30 under 30 magazine that a million other girls would keep in their bedside drawers or hang on their walls. But he was no Gideon. Liliana could have her body, Mr. Beleren could have her wandering eyes, but her heart belonged only to him. Even though he had just stolen her coffee. 

And that was what really made her feel bad. 

She would have gladly continued on her pity party, if only she hadn't felt a bare foot grazing against her own leg underneath the table. Chandra took a deep breath. Ms. Rai cast a curious glance in her direction before ultimately brushing it off to her usual quirks. Chandra looked to Liliana, her cheeks getting hotter and hotter as a small smile spread across the woman's rich maroon-colored lips. She tried to hide her amusement behind her hand, posing to look as if she was even listening to a single word Mr. Beleren was saying. Maybe she was. Maybe she wasn't. But her foot was definitely moving higher and higher, drawing lazy circles in an excruciatingly slow manner. 

It almost hurt really, the warmth of Liliana's bare skin just threatening to dip into Chandra's own heat. It was pure torture. The meeting would never end sooner than she liked. 

* * *

When the meeting had concluded and the dutiful assistants had been excused to do the jobs the company was paying them to actually do, Chandra and Gideon retreated to the little corner of the thirty-fourth floor: the marketing department. It was all more boring whites and grays, except for an intern's shiny red thermos. There were a dozen reports that needed to be finalized and reviewed, a million missing data and requests she personally needed to sift through. Because _technology may be smart, but humans should be smarter. _Chandra laughed wryly to herself, rifling through dusty folders and frowning at the disorganization of the documents inside. 

In this reality, she thought, her job was still painstakingly the same. Doing too much in so little time. It didn't even help that Gideon Jura, the man whose desk was _still _right across from hers despite his obvious dislike of her, constantly glared at her. 

She thought of that strange man, wondered if he was having the time of his life while she suffered. She ought to pay him a visit after work. But could she? Did he exist _outside _of... whatever this was. 

She was getting dizzy from staring at a series of telephone numbers and names and reference numbers and addresses and costs and change. A perfectly manicured hand, pale and soft, gently spread all over the discombobulating report she was trying to read; a hand that smelled like designer perfume, tangy and sweet. She stared at it, knew exactly where it had been this morning and followed its trail, leading up to shoulders that had no business looking so enticing, poking between strands of ebony hair. Chandra remembered how she had nuzzled into her long neck as her eyes roamed past, honing in those luscious maroon-colored lips that quirked in half-smile. She continued upward, her own eyes locked onto her bright, mischievous eyes the color of amethysts. 

Chandra should really do something about the fluttering in her chest and the rush that spread downwards, to places Liliana Vess apparently frequented. Maybe she should do something the burning stares too, the ones that she was beginning to notice from, literally, every other person in their department. 

"Nalaar, I have a meeting with Sales in fifteen." Liliana said in her most authoritative tone. It sent a shiver down Chandra's spine and she silently vowed that she would do anything the woman asked of her. Without even sparing a look, Liliana scooped up the documents Chandra had been reading and held them out to Gideon. "Jura, please so to it that these reports are finished by the end of the day." 

He didn't look at the documents. He looked directly into Liliana's eyes with as much disdain as he could muster. Just when Chandra thought he would refuse, he forced himself to smile, grabbed the folders and set them on top of his foot-tall work pile. 

Liliana Vess flashed her most saccharine smile and pulled Chandra to her feet. The woman hadn't even bothered to look at Chandra as she headed straight for the elevators, softly chastising Chandra for being late _again. _

Chandra turned back to the office, to possibly telepathically apologize to Gideon for the trouble. He may have stolen her coffee, but she wasn't heartless and to have been stuck with **_her _**work? Her heart sank when he didn't even spare them a glance, hunched low and scribbling on the margins of the paper in his hand. She did, however, see a few of her other colleagues whispering to each other, saw an exchange of sly looks and crude hand gestures. She even saw the intern with the red thermos slip a bill towards another. 

She began to fidget when she and Liliana stood in front of the elevator, waiting for it to stop on their floor. She was afraid to turn around and catch more snickers, more whispering, two peace-signs colliding, more losing bets and knowing smiles. It was beginning to dawn on her that this _thing _between her and Liliana Vess wasn't public knowledge. And she didn't know quite how to deal with the fact that she was secretly sleeping with her boss. 

"Secret" being a discretionary word. 

Almost non-existent. Almost. 

The doors slid open and the lone man in the elevator car nervously eyed the two women. He brushed past Chandra with a thinly-veiled smirk and a thumbs-up he nearly pressed against her nose. She swatted at the air between them, grimacing as she followed Liliana inside. Heart pounding and her armpits feeling extremely sweaty in the normally cold office, she stood stock-still beside her, basking in the scent of her perfume. Her mind wouldn't stop wandering to places they shouldn't be this very moment. Liliana leaned closer, her breast brushing over Chandra's shoulder. 

"Relax, darling." Liliana whispered. 

Chandra could swear she forgot how to breathe while Liliana stood quietly beside her, staring down at her phone while she welcomed death. The doors slid close again. She wondered if Liliana would wrap her arms around her and slip her tongue down Chandra's throat. No, she was still looking at her phone. Chandra looked up at the floor display to distract herself, catching sight of the security camera that seemed to be burning holes into her head. She glanced at Liliana again. Of course, she wouldn't do something so stupid with a camera right there. 

As soon as the doors slid open, Liliana Vess marched right out onto the thirty-eighth floor, the supposedly _fancier _floor for those higher up on the corporate food chain, but it was almost bare, eternally under renovation. The only office here was Sales, where Ms. Rai and her uptight assistants would either be on their phones or having another one of their millions of mini meetings. On the opposite side of the floor was the copy room. _Their very own private copy room! _The one that the Sales Department didn't have to share with another department, like theirs. The private copy room on the opposite side of the floor that was empty for most parts of the day. The private copy room that Liliana was leading her to right now. 

"Sales is that way." Chandra mumbled, walking briskly and as quietly as her heels would allow. 

"I know." 

Chandra was shoved into the copy room, the smell of ink flooding her senses and making her dizzy. Liliana spared one last look at the hallway before she locked the two of them inside. She looked thrilled to be there, finally looking at everything Chandra's, except her eyes. Liliana bit her bottom lip, sauntering closer. 

"What are you—" she felt stupid for even asking, "Oh." 

Liliana was surprisingly strong, managing to shove Chandra on top of the copier, the sound of metal and plastic rattling from the impact. Before Chandra could even think about the possible damage they had done, before she could even try to figure out exactly where the bruise on her ass might appear, Liliana's hands were firm as they cupped her face, her lips soft against Chandra's. It was slow, tentative, as if Liliana was relishing the sensation of a chaste kiss. Chandra did too and she whimpered when the woman pulled herself away as Chandra tried to gulp for air. 

"All these reports have been really stressing me out." she sighed. Liliana resumed the kiss, her tongue hot and her breaths were heavy. Her hands caressed down the length of Chandra's neck, sliding slowly until she reached the first button on Chandra's shirt. 

Chandra, on the other hand, didn't know what to do with her hands. They hung limply at her sides. She thought of bracing herself against the old copier, or maybe try to fumble for the zipper of Liliana's dress or just grab the other woman's breasts like water balloons. She groaned instead. Liliana smiled.

"I thought—"

The other woman trailed kisses down her jaw, down her neck, a playful lick at her collarbone when one button had been undone, two, then three. The air was cool against her bare skin, but Liliana had thankfully pressed herself closer, her hands gently squeezing Chandra's breasts. She gasped as Liliana continued her ministrations, smiling against her lipstick-stained chest. The kisses resumed, moving higher and higher, a quick peck on her parted lips and taking a turn to back to her jaw and finally resting by her ear. Liliana's breathing was ragged, needy and her deft fingers devilishly pinched and drew circles around her nipples. 

"I thought we were... going to..." Chandra managed to breathe out, groaning when Liliana slipped a hand inside the cup of her bra, her nipples hardening at the feeling of the woman's cold fingers. 

Liliana must enjoy torturing Chandra, pulling herself away, just a little bit, just enough so that their eyes could meet. One hand in her bra and the other hand gripping the copier, so close to her ass. The woman had a smile on her face, softer than usual. Amused, was it? Maybe dazed? Captivated, more like it. It was perhaps the softest smile Chandra had ever seen on the woman's lips.

Liliana Vess still looked immaculate under the sickly glow of the fluorescent lights, lipstick smudged, her dress wrinkled and her hand where it shouldn't be. She looked at Chandra like she hung a single star in the dreary night sky of Ravnica. But it seemed like the most important star. Possibly, the _only _star. 

"The meeting's not in..." Liliana glanced at yet another boring grey-colored clock by the door, "Seventeen minutes." 

"Shouldn't we..."

As she turned back to Chandra, the sparkle in her eyes had disappeared, replaced by a strong need to ravage, to consume. With the same surprising strength that Chandra should probably get used to by now, Liliana lifted the girl on top of the copier machine, planted herself firmly between Chandra's legs and pressed their lips together for another painfully intoxicating kiss. "Stop wasting time then, darling." 

She laughed softly against Chandra's lips, squeezing and pinching Chandra's breast that she had gotten free of her bra. Chandra, to her credit, finally found her bearings, running her fingers through Liliana's long black hair, wrapping her legs around the other woman's stomach and getting high on the scent of her flowery shampoo and the sweet, tangy perfume. When Liliana had finally let go of the copier and slipped her hand between her legs, Chandra knew she was truly and utterly fucked. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Press play: [Love To Love You Baby by Donna Summer](https://youtu.be/V5AztWseIdU?t=15)
> 
> **  
**  
_It's Summer time!_  
¯\\(◉‿◉)/¯


	4. Food is the Music of Love

Chandra was tired.

No, she was exhausted.

No, she had no idea how she could possibly go to sleep and wake up the next morning. She was just completely drained.

It had been two days. Yes, she counted the days now. Two extremely erotic and ultimately tiresome days of running in and out of unoccupied copy rooms, explaining to Inventory why she had no idea why the copier on the thirty-eighth floor broke and that she had only ever used the copier on the thirty-fourth floor.  _ Loopholes.  _

It was a Friday night and, instead of reluctantly joining her colleagues for a few rounds of beers, Chandra went home instead. Liliana was currently in... Chandra had no idea where the woman was. She trudged up the steps to her apartment, her stomach growling with every movement and dreading that she should really care about Liliana's whereabouts, shouldn't she? They were, after all, girlfriends. Maybe not for really real, but they are. Here. 

She tried not to think about it too much. That man said that nobody would remember anything after all of this anyway and this whole  _ thing  _ with Liliana was just a joke. It wasn’t as if she really was going to decide she would make this “ _ relationship”  _ of theirs permanent. 

She stopped in front of her door, stuck her hand in her bag and rummaged around for her keys. She bit her tongue and prayed she hadn’t forgotten them on her way out that morning. She took a step back, her bag colliding with the door; one hand flying to her pockets as her knee knocked into the door frame. She gave out a yelp and almost fell over. 

The door opened as soon as she straightened herself. Chandra sighed and forced herself not to roll her eyes. 

“Did you forget your keys again?” Nissa  Revane said in her whispery voice, green eyes wide with surprise and slight amusement. 

“I didn’t.” Chandra exclaimed, pushing past her roommate, into the living room, “I was actually looking for them in my bag because, you know, they’re in here somewhere, but I tripped and it sounded like I was knocking and I didn’t forget my keys again.” 

Nissa sighed, wrapping one arm around herself and the other pointing to the kitchen counter behind her. 

Chandra’s eyes landed on her own set of keys, glinting in the low light of the fluorescent bulb. She looked mortified, returning her gaze to Nissa. Her roommate didn’t need any words to humiliate her, it would seem and she even had the gall to smile. 

“You were in  _ quite  _ the rush this morning.” she chuckled. 

Chandra narrowed her eyes as she grumbled, “I swear I’m going to mop the floor with that smug face of yours.” 

Nissa clutched her stomach as she openly laughed. She turned her back to Chandra and retreated into the kitchen, poking her head into the fridge for whatever vegetable or fruit she usually munched on. Chandra stared when Nissa pulled a pack of pasta out and one of her weird vegan  _ meat alternatives  _ shaped like meatballs. 

_ Sacrilege! _

“Do you want some spaghetti and meatballs?” Nissa casually said, diving back into the fridge for more of her hippie food, “It’s late and I’m not sure if you’ve eaten yet.” 

Chandra frowned, waiting for her to look into her eyes before she scoffed, “I’m not eating one of your vegan shit. Ever.”

Nissa sighed, “Tofu isn’t bad for you.” 

“You’re so fucking weird, you know that, right?” Chandra turned her back on Nissa and started for her room, “I already ate, thanks.” 

That was a lie, but she really did not want to eat anything even remotely healthy right now. Instead, she closed the door behind her, threw her bag on to the floor and lazily stripped out of her office clothes. 

The first time —  _ and only —  _ time she had accepted Nissa’s offer of food had been ham slices. It was bad. Next, it was sausages, which were also bad. The last time Chandra had ever dared touch one of Nissa’s food was the vegan bacon. She had taken one big bite one sleepy Sunday morning; her eyes had widened at the odd texture and  _ off  _ taste. She looked to Nissa who had a faltering smile on, in the in the blink of an eye, Chandra dashed for the bathroom and spat the food out. 

Admittedly, the bacon didn’t taste  _ too bad,  _ but it just really didn’t feel right. 

After that incident, Chandra was glad that Nissa had taken to labeling her food in the fridge. Chandra still had flashbacks of the  _ fake-ham  _ each time she tried to grab some milk or eggs for breakfast. She hated cooking or eating in front of Nissa, griping whenever the brunette still hadn’t left for her top-secret job or whatever hippie-stuff it was she did in her free time. 

Chandra had tried to ignore the awkwardness between her and Nissa when it came to food once. She grabbed a plate of leftover chicken wings one morning and firmly planted herself on the seat right across from her roommate. Before she could even take one bite, Chandra made the mistake of looking at her and she was looking right back, green eyes wide, lips parted to protest and judging her from across the table. 

Nissa  Revane had always been strange from the moment that Chandra walked through their front door. She had come here with her grandmother. Nani  Oviya _ adored  _ Nissa, the two falling into a boring conversation about cooking and plants. Chandra was left to explore the apartment on her own. 

It wasn’t a ridiculously large space, but it wasn’t as cramped as the other units that she and her grandmother had visited before. There were two bedrooms and one bathroom, everything else was out in the open; the kitchen, the living room. The walls weren’t thin either. She didn’t understand why the rent wasn’t extortionate — even for Nissa alone — until the fifth month of her stay. 

There were constant power outages. Loose cables, the electricians would say as they  _ fixed  _ it. On rare occasions, they didn’t have any running water. The elevator had been eternally under maintenance, one of the windows was stuck shut and then, there was just the general idea of Nissa  Revane living with her. 

She was harmless at first glance, timid, polite, kept mostly to herself, but the girl just wouldn’t stop asking questions. Not to mention the ridiculous number of house plants that sat on top of whatever surface the humans didn’t use. The fire escape was filled with potted plants. They looked pretty, but what if they needed to escape from an actual fire? 

But Chandra was desperate and was eager to move out of her Nani’s house, to be able to afford food with the meager salary of a barely-paid intern at Guildpact Incorporated and have her own place. She had no other choice but to endure. She had even formed a plan that made living with Nissa a lot easier. 

Ignore her. 

That was tonight’s plan, much like the nights that came before. 

* * *

She was awakened by the sound of a low rumbling. Chandra rolled over on her bed, massaging the crick in her neck. She stood up when the rumbling continued. Lies had a way of getting back at her, and in full force. She stifled a yawn with her left hand, her right hand grabbing the filigreed clock beside her. 

12:38AM. 

And she was starving. 

Quietly, she exited her bedroom, glad that it was dark and devoid of the annoying brunette. With the interior’s map clear in her mind, Chandra deftly navigated the living space in the dark, popping the refrigerator open to make a peanut butter sandwich. 

She held her breath at the sight of a baking pan covered in tin foil, a note stuck on top of it. 

_ Give it a try. It’ll be worth it. _

Chandra pulled the foil off and felt her mouth water at the sight of the vegan spaghetti. She pulled the entire pan out, grabbed a fork and did as Nissa suggested. 

There was no harm in trying and she doubted Nissa would make the spaghetti with the accursed  _ fake-ham.  _ She may be a pain in Chandra’s ass, but she wasn’t a walking hellspawn. 

She thought about sticking the spaghetti in the toaster, just to get a whiff of it, but Chandra was too hungry and spaghetti was actually one of the rare few that she liked eating cold. Cheese pizza wasn’t too bad cold either. 

She shoveled a forkful into her mouth and almost cried. “Oh my god.” 

It wasn’t bad. In fact, it was actually pretty good. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Press play: [You Can't Hurry Love by The Supremes](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1qOiNnK7AFg)


	5. The Heart Wants

Liliana Vess had a small birthmark, the shape of a carrot, hidden in her inner thigh. Chandra found it on their third night together, stumbling into rickety tables, the lumpy sofa in the living room and almost knocking over one of Nissa's fire escape plants. Liliana had plenty of meetings lined up that day and had only seen Chandra once, when she had been called to hand over a forgotten document. 

At the end of the meeting, Liliana had slipped the document back onto Chandra’s desk. Chandra carefully took out the blank pieces of paper and returned them, along with the folder, to the copy room. 

Liliana had freckles on her back, near invisible and always covered up by her long, black hair. She lay on Chandra's chest in the back of her car. She had sent the driver home when they had picked the women up from a little inconspicuous restaurant three blocks from Guildpact HQ. 

They napped a little bit longer than they should have. When they finally managed to peel themselves off of the leather, they slipped back into their hastily discarded clothes. Chandra’s neck and arm felt sore and Liliana eloquently complained about the crick in her neck. She drove Chandra home with one last, steamy kiss. 

“For the road.” she said. 

And then she was off. 

Liliana had, what looked like, a burn mark on her right butt cheek, as big as the pad of Chandra’s thumb and one she always carefully tried to hide. They were on the twelfth-floor bathroom late one night, muttering curses at the newly-installed security camera in the thirty-eighth-floor copy room. 

“It’s from a vaccine shot.” Liliana testily responded to her query, batting Chandra’s hand away from the accursed mark, “It must look like a wrinkly old man’s face, but I guess I’ll be safe if another plague comes along.” 

It looked... _ strange _on the expanse of perfectly smooth skin, but Chandra liked the thought. When she was alone in bed that night, she wondered if she had completed her shots. She would have to call her grandmother soon. Maybe Nani Oviya would know. 

She hoped Nani Oviya would know. 

Liliana had a “_ moving bump” _on her left ankle, ankle laxity she called it. They were in Chandra’s apartment in the late afternoon, having left the office early for a dinner meeting about what else they needed for an upcoming presentation. Nissa had texted that she had to spend the night at a friend’s, emergency cat-sitting. 

Not that Liliana even minded or cared if Nissa was around anyway. 

They were on the couch, struggling against the lumps and bumps and the smell of fresh dirt that clung to the air. Liliana blamed the millions of potted plants that littered the room. Chandra only angled them a little to the right, her hand sliding down the other woman’s leg and _ feeling it. _

_ “ _What the hell is that?!” 

_ “ _A sprain from my reckless days.” 

She grabbed Chandra by the shirt that barely clung to chest, pulled as hard as she could, and in one swift movement, she had the poor girl pinned beneath her. But Chandra never once complained. That night. 

Chandra usually felt sore in the mornings or a little bit more exhausted than usual. Gideon Jura would glare at her each time she yawned and he saw it no matter how much she tried to hide it. 

Despite the steamy nights and the best orgasms she’s had in a _ really _long time — and maybe she thought about it a little too much when she shouldn’t be and she spent most of her time at work grinning like a middle-school boy at empty spaces. 

Being with Liliana was actually better than she had ever imagined before she met the strange man. But to be the butt of the office joke? To have Gideon look at her as if she were a walking stain on his freshly-pressed tight shirt? It was starting to sting. 

She knew she could end it _ now. _

But nobody would remember any of this. 

And she knew how all of this would end anyway. With him. All of this? Well, it was one last hoorah before she settled down. 

Chandra tried not to think about Gideon Jura and his still-sexy evil stares. In this world, she was with Liliana, so when she had quickly signed the last of her reports, she got up from her desk and marched out of the marketing offices, marched into the slightly crowded elevator and stopped on the twenty-seventh floor. 

She headed for the broom closet at the far end of a hall, digging into the pockets of her slacks for her phone— 

“—to put an end to this, Liliana.” his voice was deep, melodically gravelly, like sand between toes. 

“Why don’t you just mind your own business?” Liliana’s voice quivered as she tried to keep her voice down. 

“It’s everybody’s business. There are security cameras in this building. The two of you haven’t even been a little bit subtle.” 

“Subtle just isn’t my thing.” 

Silence. 

Chandra held her breath and took carefully slow steps backwards, the voices growing softer, harder to hear. 

“I was stupid enough to think you were capable of caring about other people.” 

“You’re just stupid. Period.” 

“I tried very hard, Liliana. You’re still just a heartless bitch.” 

She scrambled back to the elevators, almost broke her finger as she pressed the thirty-fourth floor. She returned to her desk, undeterred by the scheming looks and barely hidden chuckles from her colleagues. She felt her cheeks burning, convincing herself that they hadn’t heard what she had. 

But they knew. 

“This is all temporary fun.” she murmured, pulling whatever stack of paper from her desk drawer and booting up her computer. 

Liliana had a nasty red scar behind her left ear, a little deep and formed in the shape of a V. Chandra nervously stood behind her, one hand slipping into the other woman’s underwear and the other hand pushing strands of silky hair to the side. She almost had Liliana bent over the kitchen counter, alone in the woman’s brightly lit loft on the other side of town. 

Her lips gently brushed across the sensitive skin, feeling Liliana stiffen for a moment. 

“Where did you get this?” 

“I tripped and fell on a table when I was younger.” 

Liliana twisted in her arms. Chandra feared that she might have killed the mood, quickly yanking her hand from where it had been. She backed away a little, remembering how _ angry _the woman sounded earlier with somebody. 

But she looked pensive instead, her eyes searching Chandra’s face for... something. She pulled her closer, her arms circling Chandra’s shoulders in a vice grip, her tongue practically shoved into Chandra’s mouth, questions drowned out by the sound of moaning. 

Things weren’t any better the following day. 

Liliana had a tattoo on her right ring finger. It was small, almost inconspicuous, a round heart with the tail end striking down the middle. It seemed like a broken heart, but Chandra was embarrassed to admit, even to herself, that she first thought it looked like a pretzel. They were on Chandra’s bed, Liliana’s nails scratching Chandra’s skin as she clumsily tried to pull her clothes off. 

Chandra reached for her hand, to try to calm her, pressed a kiss to her knuckle and caught sight of it. Liliana simply stared. Chandra pressed one more kiss to the back of her hand, to the tips of her fingers, to her palm, to her wrist, hoping Liliana would come out of whatever reverie she had been lost in. 

“When did you get the tattoo?” Chandra whispered as she pushed herself up, her hands gripping Liliana’s shoulders as she pressed more kisses to the woman’s neck. 

But Liliana didn’t reply. 

She pushed Chandra back onto the bed, steady fingers stripping her of her clothes, hands caressing and squeezing whatever expanse of flesh that were within her reach. Her lips had followed suit, wet, impatient and desperate for more of Chandra. More than what they’ve been doing. More than what Chandra could give. 

Chandra counted the cracks on the ceiling, body aching and still a little breathless even after some time. Liliana had left by daybreak. Without a word, she slipped into her crumpled clothes, combed her fingers through her hair and simply gave a look whenever Chandra would ask where she was going. 

She left in a hurry, tripping on the floor, bumping into the door frame and sending something clattering to the ground. 

“Hey!” 

Chandra listened as Nissa Revane shouted, listened as the footsteps had gotten heavier, louder and finally ended with the deafening slam of the door. 

She lay back on her bed, counted the cracks again. 

One. Two. Three. 

_ Is that y-shaped crack a single one or is it two? _

Five. Six. 

She finally emerged when the sun cut through the gap of her curtain, nearly blinding her. Nissa was still outside, standing at the kitchen counter and staring at her cup of coffee. Chandra turned to her right, saw the broken pieces of the pot, the dirt and the spiky green plant that lay in the middle of the wreckage. 

“I’ll clean that up later, don’t worry.” Nissa whispered. 

Chandra kept her eyes on the broken pot, felt a weight in her chest. She wondered if it was guilt. This might all be a dream — a very vivid and truthfully awful dream — and that everyone around her would forget. But she won’t. She would remember. 

_ Dear sweet Chandra. Poor girl. Poor girl. _

“No,” Chandra said softly, staring out the window into the busy streets below, “I'll do it.” 

* * *

Liliana Vess had been avoiding her calls. Not that Chandra called a lot, but she definitely didn’t try to call her only twice. 

Today was the ninth day of their eleven-day reality together and Liliana was nowhere to be found. It should have been a sign, to return to the strange man, to possibly move on to her second option or just jump right into a life with Gideon already. 

But Chandra went to work, typed away at her desk, fielded questions about Liliana’s whereabouts and ignored the dirty looks that were sent her way. When her shift ended, she went back to her apartment, cursed herself for leaving her keys again and grumbled as Nissa quietly let her in. 

She made her way to her bedroom, frowning at the glaringly obvious spot where a plant should have been and locked herself in her room. 

After midnight, she snuck out to the kitchen, relieved that Nissa had retreated into her own room. Chandra headed straight for the fridge, contemplating whether she should steal the foil-covered plate right in the middle. When she caught sight of Nissa’s messy handwriting, “_ In case you get hungry”, _Chandra pulled it out and shoved a spoonful into her mouth. 

Whatever it was, it was just as good as the fake spaghetti and meatballs, but she once again vowed not to let her roommate know that. 

The following day had been the same. 

Liliana didn’t pick up any of her calls, a couple more than yesterday. Chandra tried not to let the quiet accusations get to her, ignored the pointed look Gideon gave her and just reviewed the same reports from the day before. 

She thought about going to the strange man after work, to finally put an end to this _ nothing. _

But she was exhausted by the time her shift ended. She went straight home instead, slowly walked up the stairs and knocked on the door. Nissa looked surprised, but she said nothing. Nissa awkwardly stood in the kitchen, a frying pan in hand as Chandra leaned against the kitchen counter. 

“Have you eaten yet?” Nissa cleared her throat. 

Chandra only shook her head. 

“Would you like some falafels?” 

“Sure.” Chandra croaked. 

Nissa thankfully didn’t pry. Chandra moved to the dining table and waited, not quite sure what exactly it was she was waiting for; for Liliana to return her calls? For Nissa to finish making dinner? For all of this to finally be over so she could get back to her old life, where she didn’t even _ think _of Liliana Vess as more than just her boss. 

She thought about something else. 

Nissa Revane had very high cheekbones. She sat across from Chandra, quietly eating the falafels she made. Her hair was down and tucked behind her unusually large ears. 

Chandra openly looked at her the entire time, her own food untouched, and barely bothered by the scraping of her roommate’s utensils. When their eyes met, Nissa immediately dropped her gaze back down to her food and Chandra took it as a sign to stop making things weirder than it already was. 

“I thought vegan food tasted like mud, but this is actually pretty good.” Chandra exclaimed after almost choking on a spoonful of Nissa’s cooking. 

Nissa scoffed, “I’m not surprised you’ve eaten mud before.” 

“Not on purpose.” Chandra laughed in between more spoonfuls. 

Nissa laughed too. “People usually wash the dirt off their food, Chandra.” 

Chandra grew quiet and kept her eyes on her half-empty plate. It looked very colorful with the greens of the vegetable leaf and the reds of the baby tomatoes and whatever that purple thing was. The plating looked something like her grandmother would have made for when she started living with her. She wasn’t surprised though. There was always the possibility that Nissa Revane’s only friend was Chandra’s grandmother. 

She looked at Nissa again. Nissa was looking at her too, head tilted to the side, her eyebrow knitted together in thought and her lips slightly parted. Nissa Revane had always _ looked _ _ strange _to her from the moment she walked into the apartment and saw the woman carrying a plant and trailing dirt on the floor. 

But right now, in the dim light of their little shared apartment, the traffic a little less violent outside, drunken serenades and dogs howling at the moon somewhere in the city, Nissa... _ looked _ _ more strange _ _ . _But in a way that made Chandra a little uncomfortable. 

“What are you looking at this time?” she whined. 

Nissa shook her head, cheeks tinted red as she pushed her food around her plate, “No— I was... how is your grandmother?” 

_ Of course. _

Chandra sighed and resumed her eating. It really was good food. She was afraid that she would have to think about how delicious this was for the next three days. “She’s fine, I guess. I might visit her next week. I’m not sure. I’ll have to call her tomorrow.” 

That was a lie. 

In this reality, there was no next week and Liliana and her were doing what bunnies do and Gideon looked at her like she was a thorn at his side and her colleagues thought she was a slut and Nissa’s cooking was mouthwateringly good. 

Everything was a lie. 

“That’s good!” Nissa smiled delicately but wide, as if the very thought of Chandra’s grandmother brought her immense joy, “She’ll be glad to see you again soon.” 

Nissa was still staring though, smiling that strange smile that just made things weirder for Chandra. She must have noticed Chandra shifting about in her seat, the food on her plate just getting cold from the tension between the two of them. 

“You’re _staring_ again.” Chandra murmured, shielding herself from Nissa’s gaze with her hand. 

“We’ve never...” Nissa hesitated. She leaned back, away from Chandra, head bent down and her voice softening to a whisper that almost broke Chandra’s heart, “It’s just nice. Talking to you. You don’t talk. Not to me. Not like this.” 

Nissa finished the rest of her meal in silence. She never looked at Chandra the entire time, but she patiently smiled at her when she offered to clear the table and wash the dishes. 

And Chandra should have said something. She should have at least offered to do the cleaning, but she sat there on the dining table, watching Nissa, avoiding her gaze and staring out through the fire escape window when she said good night. 

There was a small circle of uneven paint on the window sill, where the spiky green plant pot should have been. 

* * *

Liliana Vess used to have various piercings around her ears. Used to. Now there were only little holes that never closed, but were never used. The two of them lay side by side on top of Chandra’s bed. Well, shoulders pressed together and Liliana’s leg over Chandra’s. It was a little big for a single person, but with Liliana there, they had to make do. 

Feet aching and limbs heavy from traipsing all around Ravnica, from the most exquisite restaurant uptown, the fancy yet small-proportioned feast, the shiny new pendant necklace that was currently stuffed in Chandra’s discarded bag and the unbelievable afternoon sailing along the river just outside of the city. 

The two of them had gotten through the stage of tearing each others’ clothes off, the ravenous making out that set fire to their insides and the tugging and pushing on the bed. They have been doing that all week after all. 

But they’ve been staring at the ceiling for more than half an hour now. Chandra wanted to ask where Liliana had been yesterday, but she kept quiet instead, looking at the silhouette of the woman beside her. 

Liliana’s skin looked like marble in the pale moonlight, cold and hauntingly beautiful. Her soft purple eyes glimmered in the low light, darting left to right as if she were reading some invisible text above them. In the years that Chandra had known her, this was the first time she had ever seen Liliana Vess this vulnerable. 

It was almost as if she was another person entirely. 

“You know,” Chandra whispered, “you never talk much about yourself.” 

“You don’t talk much either, darling.” Liliana smiled softly, “You never mention anything about your life either.” 

Chandra shifted a little, hoping Liliana hadn’t felt it. But with them pressed so close together, of course, Liliana did. 

“I thought we were getting to that part.” Liliana continued, “Eventually.” 

“Always _ on-the-way, _ but never really _ there?” _

“Is this your way of telling me you’ve been faking it all this time?” Liliana laughed with less dignity, snorting and voice echoing in the room. So very much unlike herself, but ultimately more beautiful. 

They were quiet once more, eyes staring into each other. Liliana’s hand rested on Chandra’s neck, her finger tracing lazy lines along her jaw with a gentleness Chandra had never felt from her before. 

“Don’t they say that life is a journey, not a destination?” Liliana chuckled against her shoulder. 

“That’s not what I meant.” Chandra whispered into her forehead. 

Liliana pulled away from her, resumed her previous position of staring up at the ceiling. Chandra wondered when things between them changed. From the reckless flirting to the brazen escapades at work, this was... tame. 

She held her breath when Liliana suddenly said: 

“People change, darling. Sometimes for the better, sometimes for the worse.” 

Her heart pounding in her chest, Chandra watched as Liliana slowly turned to face her completely, hand cupping her cheek and just stares at her, purple eyes so amazed and full of wonder. 

Because of Chandra. 

“I’ve always wanted to be better.” Liliana whispered, voice so fragile, so hopeful and so afraid, “I seem to have always made a mess of that as well. But I _ really do _want to be better.” 

“I know.” Chandra admitted. She smiled. 

Liliana pressed a gentle kiss on her lips, so full of promise and hope. She pressed their foreheads together and breathed deeply. Chandra felt... contented. 

“Thank you, Chandra.” Liliana pressed another kiss to her lips, “I... Thank you.” 

* * *

“Had fun?” the strange man said, her mouth stretching into that god-awful smile of his. The little shred of patience Chandra had was the only thing that kept her from lunging at him for a hard punch. 

“It was alright.” she muttered instead, avoiding his eyes. 

She shifted in her seat, hair tousled, picking at the hem of her baggy college sweatshirt. 

“Liliana Vess seemed like a pretty good addition to your choice list, am I right?” he laughed, “I see what you’re doing here and I know, when you’ve named all three choices, you’re going to have a hard time picking out _ The One.” _

“Can we just get this over with?” 

She thought of Liliana Vess from the moment before she had fallen asleep. The hopeful and naïve part of Chandra’s imagination thought that Liliana was going to say those three words. Last month, she would never imagine the woman capable of _ even feeling _the L-word, but last night? 

“Of course, you’re going to want to pick that tall, muscle man last.” the man cut in through her thoughts, “Might I give a suggestion?” 

Chandra sighed, "I need a break."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Press play: [Will You (Still) Love Me Tomorrow by Carole King](https://youtu.be/GLA7sanwnN8?t=8)


	6. Op. 10, No. 3

The cars were bustling about, people were going through the motions, slipping and sliding between each other as they made their way to who knows where. Chandra Nalaar pushed past two lovers who took their time walking in the middle of a busy sidewalk. They muttered curses about her behavior and how she _ should really do something about that hair. _

_ How dare they? _

But she kept moving. She had almost spilled all of the coffee she’d been carrying, cradling the tray close to her in her journey back to Guildpact HQ. 

As soon as she stepped out of the elevator and onto the thirty-fourth floor, she was met with the sound of telephones ringing, voices rising and falling, varying between irritation, appeasing clients and customers and practically cowering from the irate ones on the other line. The air smelled of strong coffee, subjugation, desperation, hopelessness and the god-awful lemon-scented air fresheners that filtered through the air-conditioning system. 

“What took you so long?” a deep voice, unaccustomed to whispering, had cut through the din of the workplace. 

Chandra turned to her right, to the hallway that led to the restrooms. Lumbering towards her was Gideon Jura, towering over her as he marched beside her. Chandra could smell the head scent of his aftershave. He had discarded his jacket, his shirt almost stretching to the point of tearing over his muscled, olive skin. 

“You know how old ladies can’t decide which type of tea they want?” Chandra began nervously, reminding herself that this was the ** _ real _ ** reality — The Really Real, “We can stand in line for fifteen minutes, but when they get to the counter, they’re ** _ still _ **trying to decide. Like, what have you been doing the entire time we’ve been waiting?” 

Gideon didn’t respond. 

He simply grunted and subtly cleared a path for her with his massive body. It wasn’t exactly a necessary thing to do, given that it was common knowledge where the two of them were headed. It was somewhere most employees didn’t want to be even remotely close to on this particular hour. 

Still, Chandra appreciated the gesture. She even had to admit it to herself that she kind of missed it. 

She glanced over in his direction with a tentative smile on her lips. He looked at her in the corner of his beautiful green eyes. She expected he would sneer at her or quickly look away in disgust like he had been for the past non-existent two weeks, but he just smiled. 

Chandra groaned to herself. How many times did she have to tell herself to pluck up the courage to ask him out on a date, or maybe hint at her wanting to ask him out on a date. Instead, they formed this little platonic bubble of boring, of looking out for each other and complaining about the insane amount of paper work and the boring calls they had on their plates. 

A woman’s voice said a little harshly, bordering on flirtatious, “... double the returns and—” 

Gideon pushed the glass door open for her, letting Chandra slip inside as he followed. Three sets of eyes were on her, a little frazzled by the interruption, but mostly that their coffee took so long. 

“Chandra, darling, you’re being paid to _ work _during office hours, not traipsing about in the city.” Liliana smirked, an eyebrow arched at her arrival. 

Chandra’s heart sank. Liliana Vess sat on the far end of the table, back straight and chin held high. Her long, black hair cascaded over her bare shoulders, falling away from the cleavage that was banned according to the office dress code, but was on full display. She remembered all the little things about her then: the birthmark, the scars, the freckles and that pretzel tattoo. 

Then she remembered the strange man’s angry frown, the frustration in his voice as he reminded her that she still had two more trials available, that this was an opportunity of a lifetime. They didn’t let people participate in the Program just like that. Chandra _ very _lucky! 

But the way Liliana quirked a perfect brow at her, lips that once roamed her body stretched into a thin, impatient line. Was any of the last eleven days even real? 

“Did you get lost?” Liliana continued, “Was I not clear with the instructions? Should I have taught you how to use the GPS app on your phone? Should I have given you a printed map?” 

“Sorry.” Chandra mumbled, gently handing over the three shots of exotic espresso Liliana had ordered, “There was a big line an—” 

“Excuses aren’t really going to make up for the fact that this coffee has gone cold now.” Liliana forced a smile and snatched another coffee cup from the tray. She turned her back on Chandra, her perfume filling her nostrils, her hair softly swiping across the girl’s cheek as she sauntered over to Mr. Jace Beleren. “Here, darling, I’m afraid your soy latte isn’t as hot as it should be.” 

Chandra squirmed beneath Mr. Beleren’s confused look. That was another shot to her heart, a cold one. _ Darling _ apparently was a common pet name for Liliana. Chandra wasn’t, in fact, _ special. _Liliana was just pretty good at making people feel that way. 

She tried not to dwell on the entire ordeal too much, tried to ignore it when Mr. Beleren and Liliana argued about Chandra needing to go across town for coffee when there was a fully-functional coffeemaker in the pantry on the twenty-ninth floor. 

The entire day had been just that: Liliana being a petty, demanding bitch of a boss to Chandra, asking her to go over documents that _ she _should be working on, but instead Liliana Vess was still in the conference room with Mr. Beleren and Ms. Saheeli. 

“It’s been three hours!” Chandra muttered to herself, typing away at her desk, “T_ his will be a quick meeting, darlings. Thirty minutes tops! _ Fuck!” 

Gideon Jura glanced in her direction every now and then and each time, Chandra could feel heat rising to her cheeks. She smiled a little at him, pretending that she didn’t feel at all embarrassed that he had caught the tail-end of her insane mutterings. He smiled a gentle smile in return, concern clear in the twinkle of his bright green eyes. 

An hour before the _ supposed _end of their shift, Liliana Vess waltzed into their little office, a grin on her face and the swagger of a predator who caught its prey. She carried a couple of folders towards Chandra and placed them on her desk. 

It was good to know Liliana still had that same effect on her; the one where she felt like a perverted teenage boy at the mere sight of flesh. It wasn’t good to know that Liliana Vess had just dumped two hours’ worth of work on her lap.

“I’m going to need that tomorrow, Chandra, darling.” the woman called out as she left the office and with her, the idea of leaving on time. 

Chandra leaned back to stretch her aching bones, dreading all of the documents she had to sift through and sighed. She was back in the real world, indeed. 

“Do you need any help?” 

She looked up at the smiling man behind her monitor, still concerned and hopeful as he waited for her to respond. The sleeves of his tight baby blue shirt were rolled up, putting his toned forearms on full display of the office. Gideon Jura was a workplace safety hazard, twice as dangerous without a vest on. Chandra thought only women struggled with the chest-area button of their shirts, but apparently Gideon was an exception. She had half a mind to tell him about wearing ill-fitting shirts, but maybe she might get sucker punched by the other women if Gideon were to walk into work with a bigger shirt.

She stretched her mouth into what she hoped looked like a decent smile instead and tried to bat her eyes like in those old-time movies, “Thank you, it’s fine. You know how particular Ms. Vess is about this, Gids.” 

“Are you saying I’m bad at my job?” he laughed. 

Chandra laughed too. She bit her lip as she glanced at his desk, at the folders and documents that littered the table top. His tape dispenser was lying on its side and his yellow marker was dangerously close to the edge. “That’s really sweet, Gids, but one of us has to be home on time and, as it is, it looks like it’ll be neither of us.” 

“Come on.” he waved his hand in front of her and grinned, “We may not go home on time, but at least we can leave together, right? That’s a win for me.” 

She was smiling like a love-struck buffoon as she handed over one of the folders Liliana had left with her. She shot Gideon several more looks, in between her current task, in between inputting data onto the server, in between phone calls and answering emails. He wasn’t exactly distracting her. No, Chandra had been working in these conditions for a little over a year now. She was really good at ignoring Gideon’s presence throughout the day — but only when he wasn’t interacting with her.

But when the clock struck four o’clock and there was either too much or barely anything else left to do, Gideon was the perfect distra— _ entertainment? _

She did enjoy looking at him subconsciously flex with each small movement of his arms. 

“Is Ms. Vess still around?” 

Chandra and Gideon turned to the voice, turned to see Mr. Jace Beleren standing in the doorway and talking with one of the interns in their department. Chandra forgot her name. “Uh... she left about... an hour ago? Umm... sir.” 

Then Mr. Beleren turned to Chandra and Gideon, excused himself from the intern with a nervous smile and stood beside Chandra. He smelled like expensive aftershave and cologne. His suit looked shinier now that he stood less than a foot from Chandra and he looked much younger than he seemed. 

“Sorry, Mr. Beleren,” Gideon stood from his desk and leaned closer to the man, “You just missed her.” 

“Let me guess,” he grinned at Chandra, “she left two hours before the end of her shift and— is that _ her _paperwork?” 

He pointed at the open folder across Chandra’s desk. Gideon cleared his throat and Chandra just smiled sheepishly up at him. 

Mr. Beleren sighed. He bent down and grabbed one Chandra’s pink sticky notes and her blue pen, muttering his apologies as he hurriedly wrote something down. He stood to his full height once more, Chandra peering down at his neat handwriting: “_ Need Wednesday morning, with supervisor signature.” _

_ “ _I’m going to have to talk to her about this.” Mr. Beleren said, Gideon’s share of Liliana’s paperwork in his hands, “We don’t actually need these reports tomorrow and these need her direct supervision. I appreciate your work, but I think it’s time we all go home.” 

Chandra absentmindedly stared at the clock above the door. It was 6:12PM and if she and Gideon were to leave within five minutes, this would be the earliest she had ever gone home since she worked at Guildpact Incorporated. 

“Nice work today, everyone.” Mr. Beleren carefully stacked the papers on Chandra’s desk, stuck the sticky note on top of it and addressed each and every single person in the office, “Pack up and leave before I get security to kick you all out. I don’t want your spouses coming here and complaining.” 

That earned tired chuckles from all around them. Gideon shifted where he stood, laughed a little and awkwardly waited for Mr. Jace Beleren to leave. 

Chandra did the same. 

But Mr. Jace Beleren remained where he stood, still smiling that boyish smile at Chandra. He reached for another piece of paper and wrote down a phone number. 

Chandra thought she was going to choke on her own spit. 

“I called that café Liliana sent you to earlier.” he slid the piece of paper to Chandra as he whispered, as if nobody had any right to hear what he was telling her, “They don’t exactly deliver, but I managed to get the owner to make an exception for me.” 

Chandra stared at the series of numbers written on pink paper in blue. She held it like it was fragile, like it was a lifeline and she was about to drown. 

Was she actually choking on her own spit?? 

“Look for Zack and tell him it’s for Jace.” he said softly, finally taking a step backwards. He turned to Gideon, still awkwardly standing there with a displeased look on his face. “I’ll see you again tomorrow.” 

Chandra spared another glance at the piece of paper in her hand. She hadn’t even thanked Mr. Beleren for the favor. Her palms were sweaty and she was looking at a café's phone number. 

“It’s not even his number.” she thought to herself, slapping the sticky note onto the corner of her monitor. 

She really ought to thank him the next time she’d see him. Coffee troubles in the marketing department were beneath him, yet there was the sticky note, a testament to Mr. Beleren’s thoughtfulness. Chandra wanted to throttle Liliana. 

Sure, their relationship had been fake and there was no way in hell that Liliana Vess would ever take an interest to her or — if she ever did — she probably wouldn’t even be half as kind as she was to Chandra. 

Still, it hurt. In the back of her mind, Liliana meant _ something _to her and nobody else could understand how or why. 

“Lucky us, right?” 

She looked up at Gideon, standing where Mr. Beleren had stood. He already had his blazer over his broad shoulders, his tie was loose and the top button of his shirt was undone. Chandra could see a little bit of fuzz underneath his shirt, wondered if the man was really just so... _ manly. _

_ “ _Oh yeah, yeah, right.” Chandra gathered up her things and shoved them into her bag. She stood to her full height, suddenly feeling hot when her eyes landed right at the undone button. “I never thought I’d get to leave the office before eight o’clock. It’s a damn miracle.” 

As promised, Gideon waited for Chandra to turn off her computer and put everything back in its place, waited as she walked into the elevator, waited as they walked through the front doors of the building, past the curious glances from the co-workers that were headed home as well. Chandra stopped in her tracks, pretended to check her phone for a call that would never come or an app notification that would tell her she was missed. 

But still Gideon waited. 

“Do you maybe want to take a walk around town with me?” he smiled. 

Her mind started running a mile a minute. What would it feel like, to pass by the other women who practically threw themselves at Gideon Jura’s feet, to watch their jealous stares as he and Chandra would walk down the street, shoulders brushing every now and then? What would it feel like if she were comfortable tucked in his arms, sitting on the couch and watching a movie late into the night? 

Chandra tried to muster up the full extent of her eloquence. 

_ I would love to. _

_ I would be honored. _

_ That would be delightful. _

_ There is nothing that I would want more. _

“Sure.” she said with a shrug. 

She walked past him, trying to hide herself away from his questioning gaze. She hadn’t meant to sound so boorish, but words were hard and Gideon should either button his shirt up or just take it off completely. 

_ Cool it, Nalaar! _

He followed after her. She regretted even agreeing to the invitation because, all of sudden, she found herself heading in the direction of her apartment. How creepy would it be to just invite him up there for no reason at all? 

So, Chandra remained quiet. She slowed down enough for Gideon to catch up to her. Thankfully, he didn’t seem to comment about Chandra’s behavior, didn’t even initiate small talk. It was comforting just having him around. Now that Chandra thought about it, she did feel a little bit safer. 

“Where do you live?” she finally asked, staring at the beaten pavement beneath her. 

“On the other side of town. We’re actually headed in the opposite direction, so I’m not sure how I can get back if I keep following you.” 

Chandra stopped and looked at him in horror. He had a smile on his face, calming, reassuring. 

“Kidding. Just kidding.” he cleared his throat and motioned for Chandra to start walking again, “I make jokes sometimes.” 

“But seriously, I’ll be fine on my own.” Chandra exasperated, “I don’t live very far and I’ve walked these streets a thousand times already. I really don’t want to inconvenience you.” 

“You’re not an inconvenience.” he said softly. 

Chandra didn’t know how to respond to that. 

They kept walking, much slower than they began. A few more blocks and Chandra would find herself right in front of her building. She would then have to say goodbye to Gideon. She would have to watch him go, trying her best not to stare at his butt for too long. 

She didn’t know why she was so nervous. She had been around Gideon Jura countless times before. She had sat across from him for a year now. They once had a good conversation about the best steakhouse in Ravnica and grilled cheese sandwiches. 

Steakhouses and grilled cheese sandwiches were very important topics! 

Maybe it was because Gideon was kind of an asshole last week. Sort of. 

Had it really been eleven days in her really real world or was she the only one who felt it? 

Mean Gideon was kind of... sexy? Alluring. In some ways. Mostly, it was just annoying and judgmental of him to be so bitter about Chandra’s relationship with Liliana Vess. But with her back around the _ real _Gideon, the nice Gideon, the gentleman Gideon who offered to walk her home, she was finding it hard to ignore just how much she wanted him to like her. 

“Do you mind if we stop here for a moment?” Gideon asked. 

Chandra looked up at the building he pointed at: a flower shop, right in the middle of a seedy street. The Four Sisters was a modest little shop. There were miniature trees on the floor and rows and rows of pink, purple and yellow flowers inside. 

Chandra didn’t ask why. She just walked right into the shop, the bell ringing above her head and a melodic voice welcomed them. 

“Welcome to the Four Sisters!” the blonde woman behind the counter said, “What can I get you?” 

The shop smelled like fresh cut grass and moist earth. It smelled like home. Chandra balked, twisting and turning at the doorway. She pointed the woman to Gideon who squeezed through the doorway that was a little too narrow for his massive size. 

“Hi, sorry to come in so late.” he chuckled, marching straight to the counter where the blonde woman looked a little in love with him. 

Chandra turned away from the sight. Hearing the woman’s shrill voice lower down to a whisper made her stomach roil, so she tried to ignore their conversation too. Why they stopped by in a flower shop in the first place, she didn’t understand. 

But then she saw it. 

She walked past the heavy-looking vases on the floor, the leaves scratching at her leg. She was careful not to knock over a few of the smaller vases on the display table with their small cacti and flowers the size of her fingernail. She approached cautiously and frowned. 

There was an entire shelf of spiky green plants in small clay pots that could fit right in the palm of her hand. 

She remembered — or made up? — the morning that Liliana had fled from her bedroom, how the woman ran out her door and probably knocked one of Nissa’s many plants off the window sill to the fire escape. Nissa had always smiled at Chandra on the rare moments that they would catch each other in the morning. Nissa not even looking in her general direction was brand new. 

Chandra carefully took one of the small plants in her hand, pressed it close to her chest, afraid that it might fall off and break all over the flower shop’s floor. She marched right up to the counter, planting herself beside Gideon. 

“I’ll take these!” Chandra interrupted. She glanced at Gideon and the large bouquet of red roses in his arms, at the credit card he was holding out to the blonde shopkeeper. “I’ll take those too.” 

In one swift motion, Chandra pulled out her own wallet and swiped Gideon’s card from his hand. The blonde woman looked between her and Gideon for a moment, but since he made no argument, billed everything to Chandra. 

He was quiet when Chandra carefully placed the roses in his arms, when she thanked the blonde woman and went right out the front door. He was quiet when he followed after her, trailing half a step behind her. He was quiet for the next two blocks, until the two of them stood right in front of Chandra’s apartment building. 

She turned to him, still clutching the little spiky green plant in her hand, but her eyes were fixed on the pavement. 

“Well, this is me!” she shrugged and then cleared her throat, “Um... no. This is where I live. You know, inside the building. Not right here, on this spot. It’s upstairs.” 

Gideon scratched at his beard, his arm doing that distracting thing called _ flexing _again. He took a step forward with a little cough, but changed his mind and took a massive step backwards. He held the bouquet of roses out to Chandra, an uneasy smile already on his face when she looked up at him. “These are actually for you.” 

Chandra felt like her head was about to explode, her cheeks getting hotter and hotter, her fingers trembling and struggling to keep the little potted plant in her grasp, “Huh. You don’t say.” 

“I can pay you back.” Gideon chuckled, “It’s not really a gift if you paid for it, right?” 

Chandra shook her head, still... _ afraid? _Of taking the roses from him. Maybe he was just being nice? Maybe he had forgotten to hand it to that woman in the flower shop. Maybe it was for his mother or grandmother or his girlfriend or his wife or his husband? There was no telling with Gideon Jura. 

Everyone in their right minds wanted him and Chandra was definitely in her right mind. 

Not really. She did pay for his gift for her. Technically. 

“It’s totally fine!” Chandra practically sang the words out, shaking her head and punctuating the statement with an awkward laugh, “I didn’t even know that it was, you know, for me. I thought you were just being polite.” 

“I did lead us there, remember?” he smiled. He took another step closer, more intently this time. He stood at his full height, Chandra staring at the undone button of his tight shirt, partially obscured by the roses he held against his chest; the roses he had gotten for Chandra. 

The roses she paid for. 

_ That’s how you end up murdered, Nalaar! _

“Thank you.” she said softly, finally accepting the bouquet, using it to balance the spiky green plant against her chest. 

Gideon leaned closer, his hand reaching out to hers, “I wa—” 

“You’re home early.” 

Chandra looked to her right, looked at Nissa Revane smirking a dozen steps away from them. Nissa had a paper bag under her arm and a large canvas tote bag on the other, a heavy gray overcoat that Chandra had never seen before hung over her shoulders, her cheeks, the tip of her nose and her oddly big ears were tinted pink from the cold. 

Chandra checked her watch. It was barely seven o’clock and Chandra had never gotten home before eight. No wonder Nissa was always either already making dinner or setting up the table whenever she would barge through the front door. 

Nissa looked between Chandra, Gideon — who took half a step back and plastered on a friendly smile — and the bouquet of roses in Chandra’s arms. Her smile widened. She squared her shoulders and scurried to the door, muttering: “I’ll give you two a moment.” 

The front door closed with a loud bang, something Chandra never thought Nissa was capable of doing. Doors were like living creatures to Nissa. Babies, even. As if they got hurt if they didn’t get closed as gently as possible. 

“Great!” Chandra huffed, staring down at herself, at the plants in her arms, her bag dangling from her shoulder and the man who still waited for her. 

She was going to smack the roses in Nissa’s face. She could have at least stayed, get introduced to Gideon and _ helped _Chandra carry everything back upstairs. 

“Did you know her?” Gideon said softly, pointing at the door as if it were Nissa. 

“Yeah. She’s my roommate.” Chandra sighed, “Funny lady. Keeps mostly to herself.” 

“I don’t think she likes me very much.” he laughed nervously. 

“She probably used to live under a rock or something. If you were old and wrinkly, she would like you in an instant. She’s best friends with my grandmother.” 

“That’s... interesting.” Gideon laughed again, heartier this time, as if the sound of his voice would sweep away how _ interesting _the entire day had been, “I guess I should go now.” 

Chandra stared up at the sky. The sun was about to set. Gideon Jura might look like he could take care of himself, but Chandra didn’t want to inconvenience him any more than she already had. She smiled at sweetly as she could and raised the bouquet against her chest as her own version of a wave and bid him good night. 

They stood quietly for a moment, just staring at each other as if they had all the time in the world. Eventually, Gideon was the first to move, taking a step away from Chandra, turning to her, then turning away. Chandra couldn’t help but stare as he walked away, cursing the bag that slightly obscured her view of his butt. Before he could turn the corner, she slipped inside her apartment building, not wanting him to see how she could be a creep sometimes. 

Climbing the stairs with a massive bouquet of roses and a tiny potted plant was a little bit harder than she expected. She could crush the roses in one miscalculated step or she could drop the plant and her landlord would then talk her ear off about the amount of plants in their apartment and how he suspected she and Nissa were growing marijuana somewhere. 

Chandra had no intention of doing something small yet illegal — she’d done that before — but she had no idea just how many plants Nissa had in their apartment and had never been in the other girl’s room before. 

Her roommate? The weird vegan girl who mumbled and liked to cook? Probably dealing growing and dealing marijuana? That was a funny thought although it wasn’t impossible. 

She stopped in front of the door, fumbling around for her keys without even bothering to set the bouquet or the plant on the floor because, who really has the time for that? She almost dropped the little pot, but managed to pressed herself against the door, pushing it back into her palm. The plant was safe, but she couldn’t say the same for the roses. 

The door opened. Chandra froze as Nissa stood in the doorway, a tired look on her face. She grinned in response. 

“You forgot your keys on the kitchen counter again.” Nissa said dryly, turning her back on Chandra and headed straight for the fridge. 

Chandra rolled her eyes as she followed. She shut the door with her foot, bumbling after the other woman with her arms still full. She frowned at the sight of her keys on the counter, gently placing the flowers and the spiky green plant right next to the damned thing. 

She walked towards the cupboards, opening and closing the doors in search for a place to store the roses in. Nissa, who was rinsing a couple of vegetables in the sink, watched her every now and then. She pulled out a giant bowl that they never really used and smiled as she held the bowl out for Nissa. 

“What?” Nissa eyed the bowl, “What am I supposed to— I’m not done pre —” 

“It’s for the flowers?” 

Nissa’s eyes widened. Without even looking, she managed to turn the tap off, set the tomato she was holding aside and gawk at Chandra like she had grown three heads at once. In all the time that Chandra and Nissa had lived together, not once had Nissa looked at her like she had dishonored three generations of her family. 

“I don’t suppose you have any spare vases, do you?” Chandra whispered, gently setting the bowl aside and hoping Nissa wouldn’t comment on it. 

Fortunately, she didn’t. Nissa Revane bent down to one of the cabinets beneath the sink and pulled out a simple glass vase. Chandra watched as she rinsed it and then filled it up with water. She didn’t cast a look at Chandra as she turned to the flowers on the kitchen counter. Nissa carefully extricated the roses from the wrapper and beautifully arranged them without Chandra’s help. 

“What’s this?” Nissa said all of a sudden. 

Chandra marched over to where she stood, stared at the flowers Nissa was arranging in the vase and almost pointed out that _ they were roses, _until she spotted the little green plant she picked out. 

“A plant?’ Chandra shrugged, “I have no idea what this is, but I wanted to replace the one that splattered on the floor.” 

Nissa looked at her in shock. Then she looked at the plants on one of the side tables, the three little pots of baby cacti on the coffee table, the dozen pots that lined the shelf by the television and the ones that sat on the window sill by the fire escape. 

She turned to Chandra and sighed, “You didn’t break any of my plants, Chandra.” 

“Oh.” 

She and Liliana hadn’t been having crazy sex in the last eleven days, they hadn’t gotten into a quiet argument, Liliana hadn’t stormed out of her bedroom and knocked over one of Nissa’s plants. 

“Are you okay?” 

“It must have been a dream then.” Chandra shook her head and forced a smile. She scratched at the back of her neck, staring at the little green plant. 

“It’s a rosemary.” Nissa whispered, setting aside the unfinished vase of roses and cupping the little pot in her hands, “I guess I could find room for it somewhere. It could be _ your _little plant then. This will be the start of your very own collection.” 

Chandra laughed and scoffed and laughed again, “Don’t be crazy. It might die tomorrow.” 

“O, ye of little faith.” Nissa rolled her eyes — her _ green _eyes — and smiled, “It won’t. You haven’t even tried caring for it yet. It just needs to be watered sometimes and a little bit of sunlight.” 

“Nope!” 

“I’ll be with you every step of the way.” 

And how could Chandra possibly respond to that? 

Nissa held the pot against her chest, the roses already forgotten, and just looked at Chandra. Sure, she had noticed her roommate’s incredible bone structure before, the imperious arch of her eyebrows, the cut of her jaw, the fullness of her bottom lip and her signature oversized ears. But when did her eyes turn green? 

Chandra felt uncomfortable again. Her palms were beginning to moisten. She was hyper aware of the beads of sweat at the back of her neck, how itchy her armpit was and how she didn’t want to scratch it until she was safely in her own bedroom. 

“Tell you what.” Nissa cleared her throat, her eyes darting left to right, her smile long gone and melted to a frown, “If you take very good care of this plant, I promise I’ll make you roasted chicken, with real chicken and not a meat alternative.” 

Chandra’s jaw dropped. The uncomfortable feeling swirled around in her stomach with such intensity that she swore it made her cheeks burn. 

Nissa Revane was going to make her roasted chicken! 

The plant had to live. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Press play: [I Only Want To Be With You by Dusty Springfield](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=osVaF4t-zFc)
> 
> Will fix this chapter sometime soon. It's not half as decent as I wanted it to be and writing in the middle of a fever isn't ideal. Sorry for the mess lol.


End file.
